MUMBAI, June 11 (Reuters) - India has scrapped customs import duties for drugs and test kits used to treat AIDS in an effort to cut prices across the country, as it struggles to cope with an ongoing shortage in its national program to fight the disease.
More than a third of India's 2.1 million HIV/AIDS patients depend on getting their daily antiretrovirals for free from state-run distribution centres, but many of them have been facing shortages or stock outs for months.
The notice put out by the Central Board of Excise and Customs this week intends to make it cheaper to import raw materials that are used to make antiretrovirals under the national program, BB Rewari of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) told Reuters.
Currently, U.S. firm Mylan Inc and India's Aurobindo Pharma supply AIDS drugs to the government program.
The exemption applies to certain first-line and second-line antiretroviral drugs used to treat adults and children, as well as to certain diagnostic kits and equipment that are used by NACO, Rewari said.
He added the drugs under exemption make up roughly 95 percent of the antiretrovirals used by India's AIDS patients under the national program.
The exemption, which will remain in effect until March 2016, is the national AIDS control department's latest effort to deal with a chronic shortage of HIV/AIDS drugs at home, even though Indian companies are some of the world's major suppliers of AIDS drugs. Local firm Cipla Ltd made headlines in 2001 by making antiretrovirals for Africa for under $1 a day.
The AIDS control program has been in disarray for months after the government changed the way over $1.3 billion in federal funds were distributed, according to data and letters seen by Reuters.
Construction of clinics in rural areas has been delayed and many health workers have quit.
Government officials have previously told Reuters of a lack of participation by local drugmakers in the tenders floated by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to procure drugs.
Industry insiders, meanwhile, cite delayed tender approvals, supply bottlenecks and late payments, as well as poor coordination between the central and state governments.
AIDS drugs sold on the open market are expensive, so in an effort to make those more affordable, the government is likely to add more AIDS drugs under price control by including them in the national list of essential medicines, people involved in the process told Reuters in April.
India must define its priorities. If we look at present unexpected bump and lower IIP number, one thing has become very clear this year India's growth is going for rough ride. The growth, development and middle class everything is just gone and vanished to give sleepless night.
If India want to grow and long term sustainable growth can only come from where it is needed most. In my opinion Rural and Agriculture is the core. Governments attitude of neglecting this sector for last one decade is sole reason for today debacle.
Government must give enough weight-age to the rural and agriculture development where 72% population resides.( This is steadily going in down in last one decade)
Water shade management and conservation must be given priority so that the farmers in the areas of rain-fed farming may have better income and opportunities to go for multiple farming.
India's infrastructure is pathetic, this must improve. Power generation should be priority.( Power generation should not be hold hostage to the governments foreign policy, government should sign gas pipeline agreement with Iran and this will reduce inflation and improve the power availability, the ultimate effect will be in good growth.)
Indian Railway is outdated and should improve and upgrade. It must double its capacity to cater to the needs of growing aspirations of fast growth of India.
Roads and Airports must be priority.
Food industry should take priority.
Mandi act needs to be amendment.
India:
Priorities for Agriculture and Rural Development
Although agriculture contributes
only 21% of India’s GDP, its importance in the country’s economic, social, and
political fabric goes well beyond this indicator. The rural areas are still
home to some 72 percent of the India’s 1.1 billion people, a large number of
whom are poor. Most of the rural poor depend on rain-fed agriculture and
fragile forests for their livelihoods.
The sharp rise in food
grain production during India’s Green Revolution of the 1970s enabled the
country to achieve self-sufficiency in food grains and stave off the threat of
famine. Agricultural intensification in the 1970s to 1980s saw an increased
demand for rural labor that raised rural wages and, together with declining food
prices, reduced rural poverty.
Inequitable allocation of water: Many states lack the
incentives, policy, regulatory, and institutional framework for the
efficient, sustainable, and equitable allocation of water. Deteriorating irrigation infrastructure: Public spending in irrigation
is spread over many uncompleted projects. In addition, existing
infrastructure has rapidly deteriorated as operations and maintenance is
given lower priority.
Rural
poor have little access to credit: While India has a wide network of rural finance institutions,
many of the rural poor remain excluded, due to inefficiencies in the formal
finance institutions, the weak regulatory framework, high transaction
costs, and risks associated with lending to agriculture.
Weak
Natural Resources Management: One quarter of India’s population depends on forests for at least
part of their livelihoods. India's "green revolution" allowed the country to produce enough
food to feed its population - but 40 years on, is this revolution unraveling?
The Green Revolution was a
deliberate, all-out attempt to become self-sufficient in basic food crops.
For 40 years. Under India's
"Green Revolution" in the 1960s and 70s -- seen as one of the world's
most successful agricultural turnarounds -- planting of high-yield varieties of
wheat and rice resulted in a sharp output rise.
Agriculture
There has been a dearth of resource support to the
farmers in the Union budgets which calls for urgent attention of the policy makers
to boost budgetary investment in agriculture in general, and dry land and rain
fed agriculture in particular. In 2006- 07, the share of agriculture in total
budget was meager 1.4 percent. This has further declined to 1.27 percent in the
current Union Budget 2010-11 (BE). A quantum jump of expenditure by the
Ministry (to around 2.5 times, in absolute numbers, between 2004-05 and
2010-11) has been noticed. However, public spending in agriculture as a
proportion of GDP is hardly perceptible. It has increased from 0.17 percent of
GDP in 2004-05 to 0.20 percent of GDP in 2010-11 B.E. The government needs to
direct its efforts towards improved rural infrastructure, agricultural research
support, investments in water management and new technology/institutional
innovations to increase agricultural productivity, and consequently growth of the
economy. Long-term sustainability of India’s farming sector, particularly dry
land agriculture, is only possible through coordinated efforts from different
quarters along with increase in share of budgetary investment in the agriculture
and allied sector and share of Central plan expenditure in agriculture.
Need for public investment
The record of agricultural growth in India in
the second-half of the 2000s was hardly inspiring. Growth rates of agriculture
in 2006-07 and 2007-08 were better on the average, riding on good monsoons and
hardening global prices. However, the growth rates in 2008-09 and 2009-10 were,
respectively, -0.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent. Advance estimates for 2010-11
have raised hopes again, but it is clear that elevating agriculture to a path
of sustained growth requires a major increase in public expenditure. In
particular, public investment, which would create fixed capital formation in
agriculture, has to increase significantly to arrest decisively the trend of
long-term decline. Budget 2011-12 plainly refuses to recognise this task as
urgent.
How
numbers are manipulated
The sharp rise in the supply of indirect finance was facilitated by
a series of definitional changes made under the UPA regime on what constitutes
priority sector credit in agriculture (for details, see R. Ramakumar and
Pallavi Chavan, “Revival of Agricultural Credit in the 2000s: An Explanation”,
Economic and Political Weekly, December 29, 2007). These definitional changes
broadly involved (a) recognising new forms of financing commercial,
export-oriented and capital-intensive agriculture as “agricultural” credit; and
(b) raising the credit limit of many existing forms of indirect financing. For
instance, from 2007 onwards, two-thirds of loans given to corporates,
partnership firms and institutions for agricultural and allied activities in
excess of Rs.1 crore per borrower were considered as indirect finance to
agriculture; the remaining one-third were treated as direct finance to
agriculture.
In 1990,
about 83 per cent of agricultural credit was of a size less than Rs.2 lakh. In
2009, however, only about 44 per cent of agricultural credit was of a size less
than Rs.2 lakh.
An area of darkness
Over
recent weeks, reports of frequent and increasingly longer power cuts from
across the country have added another layer of serious concern to India’s
faltering growth story. What is unusual about these power outages is that they
have been occurring during the months of October and November, when demand is
traditionally low. The immediate causes of the power crunch are well known.
There is a growing and acute shortage of coal, which is the mainstay of power
generation in the country, accounting for over 50 per cent of overall capacity.
Over the past four years, demand for coal, mainly for thermal power generation,
has grown by 7.3 per cent, while domestic output rose by only 5.4 per cent. What
is most worrying is the significant drop in investment in the power sector in
view of uncertainties on fuel availability and uneconomic pricing of power. The
target for additional power generation capacity in the current plan of 62,000
MW (already reduced from the original 78,000 MW) is likely to have a shortfall
of as much as 12,000 MW, according to the Planning Commission.
Indian railways lag 20-25 years behind world on technology front: E
Sreedharan
Thanks to
E Sreedharan , MD, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, India's capital has a world
class metro. A project that was on drawing board for decades and which many
thought would be almost impossible to execute is up and running. He took charge
in 1997 when he was 65 years old, long after he retired from the Railways in
1990. Today at 79, he is finally hanging his boots on December 31 to retire in
his native village in Kerala. He spoke to ET on Delhi Metro, its success and
his life. Excerpts:
You retired from the
Railways, what's your prescription for Railways future? ( Thanks to E Sreedharan , MD)
Indian
Railways has the world's fourth-largest network with 9,000 engineers but it
lags 20-25 years behind the world on the technology front, it needs to be
upgraded dramatically.
The present model of development is not sustainable and will increase crime in urban areas and increase disparity among India's population.
There is no need of targeting 9% growth, India should target 7% inclusive growth which will reduce poverty and increase quality of life.
